| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
THE WAVE OF POPULAR RIOTS which swept the Middle East and North Africa and which remains the key factor behind the regional developments engulfed not only the poor countries but also those which coped both socially and economically.
Between 2004 and 2009, for example, Tunisia increased per capita income from 3.5 thousand Tunisian dinars ($2.7 thousand) to 5 thousand TND ($3.9 thousand); its middle class (60% of population) accounted for 83% of total consumption; 80% were house owners; 21% had cars. In oil-rich Libya the year 2011 began very much as usual: foodstuffs and money were distributed among the poor; some families received free car coupons practically on the eve of the uprising.1
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